Pacers Rise Up, Smite the Lakers and Their Nine-Game Win Streak

And now for something unexpected. Friday night, the best in the West lost to the least in the East.

The Lakers had their nine-game winning streak shattered by the lowly Indiana Pacers, who beat them, 122-113, before 16,511 at Market Square Arena.

“It was a goofy game,” said Byron Scott, who produced the game’s goofiest play when he was hacked on a dunk attempt, but had the ball bounce high off the rim, hit near the top of the backboard and then drop through the hoop.

“If I could explain to you how that shot went in, then I could tell you why we didn’t win that game,” said Scott.

You figure it out. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Lakers beat this same team by 22 points. Well, not exactly the same team. The Pacers played that night without rookie guard Vern Fleming, who had the flu.

Indiana’s record, which is the worst in the Eastern Conference, now includes victories over the Lakers, the best team in the Western Conference, and the Celtics, the best team in the whole league.

The problem for the Lakers was that they had too few great plays like Scott’s and too many of the trip, stumble, fall and wave bye-bye variety.

They also had too much of Fleming, who scored 26 points and shot holes in the Laker scouting report that said he couldn’t shoot very well, at all.

Fleming, who had 14 points in the third quarter, made 11 of his 19 field-goal attempts.

“Next year, our scouting report might be a little bit more accurate,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said.

The Pacers came into the game on a roll of their own, but it was downhill. They had lost seven of their last eight. Then they held a closed-door meeting.

Riley said he thought that little get-together probably boosted the Pacers’ confidence, but he admitted that the Lakers helped the Pacers along with a poor defensive effort, which he said is beginning to concern him.

In the last six games, the Lakers have allowed, in reverse order, 122 points, 117 to Kansas City and Chicago, 111 to Boston and Atlanta and 110 to the Clippers.

Before that, but also during their winning steak, the Lakers had given up 104 points twice, 100 once and 96 in another game.

Even though the Lakers won all of them before falling to the Pacer juggernaut Friday night, Riley said he is bothered by the current defensive trend.

“We’re just giving up too many points,” he said. “We have to take a step back and play better defense. We can’t always depend on the offense.”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led the Lakers with 28 points even though he fouled out after playing just 31 minutes.

Magic Johnson finished with 22 points and 11 assists, but the Lakers managed to put up a season-low 78 shots because their offense was stumbling around with 20 turnovers and six fewer rebounds than the Pacers.

“We’ve won a couple of games just because we could outscore the other team,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “So when we hit an offensive snag like we did tonight, it just doesn’t give us any margin for error.”

The Lakers, who were tired from playing Thursday night in Kansas City and then had to travel Friday, trailed by 9 at halftime and 10 after the third quarter, even though Scott had 11 points in that period.

Johnson’s layup after a length-of-the-court baseball pass from Abdul-Jabbar got the Lakers within 102-99 with 5:54 left and forced Pacer Coach George Irvine to call a timeout.

That was as close as the Lakers came. Bill Garnett challenged Abdul-Jabbar, who had five fouls, and dropped in a quick driving hoop. James Worthy shot an airball, and Herb Williams (31 points) then drilled a jumper from the free-throw line.

After Abdul-Jabbar misfired on a hook, Jerry Sichting scored on a breakaway layup to give the Pacers a 108-99 lead with 4:46 left.

“Those points right after the timeout pretty much broke our backs,” Riley said.

So, too, did the Pacers’ offensive rebounding, especially at critical times.

The Lakers were making a mini-run at the Pacers late in the third quarter when Fleming scored after an offensive rebound, then scored on another to finish an Indiana possession that produced three offensive rebounds.

Pacer Forward Clark Kellogg supplemented the offense of Williams and Fleming with 25 points. Kellogg had 22 in the first half, when Indiana forced the action while the Lakers looked and played as though they were pretty much out of it.

“We just weren’t in the flow,” Abdul-Jabbar admitted. “When you lose and you don’t learn anything from it, it’s pretty tough. But we can learn from this game.

“I don’t think we’ll come out and play another game like this anytime soon,” he said.

Laker Notes

Overall, the Lakers did not have a great day Friday. From the time they left their hotel in Kansas City at 7 a.m. until they got to their hotel here, it took 5 1/2 hours. The Lakers sat in their plane in St. Louis for two hours because of fog, then because the air traffic control’s computer went down . . . Coach Pat Riley, who called time out with the Lakers down by nine points with four seconds left, said he wanted to run a three-point out-of-bounds play correctly. “I didn’t want to put a damper on what (Pacer Coach) George Irvine had done,” Riley explained. “It was an execution timeout, that’s all.” . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s disqualification on fouls was only his second of the season . . . The Lakers finish their four-game trip Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks.